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ILLINOIS 

PIONEER 
D^A Y S 



By 
ELBERT WALLER, A.M. 



Published by 
E. B. LEWIS, 
Litchfield, Illinois. 
1918. 



1818 19 18 



ILLINOIS 



PIONEER 
DAYS 



iHKHlH^HKK^m^HjKKHKHKHCJ 



By 
ELBERT WALLER, A.M. 



Published by 

E. B. LEWIS, 

Litchfield, Illinois. 

1918. 



Copyright 1918 by Elbert Waller. 



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'Qpx;c<):i!ti}riy(H!t^^ 



TO THE SACRED MEMORY OF 
THE BRAVE PIONEERS WHO 
MADE THIS GREAT STATE 
POSSIBLE, THIS LITTLE BOOK 
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDI- 
CATED. 



* 




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NOV 18 19i8 

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CONTENTS. 

Page 

1. Where the West Begins 6 

2. Pioneer Home Life 7 

8. A Pioneer Church 17 

4. A Pioneer School 23 

5. The Pioneer Mother 28 

6. Going to Mill 31 

7. A Ranger's Adventure 35 

8. ' ' Lasses ' ' 41 

9. Buck-Skin Breeches 43 

10. Pioneer Boatmen 45 

11. Camp Meetings 50 

12. Witchcraft 52 

13. Kaskaskia Cursed 54 

14. Freak Lawsuits of Pioneer Days 58 

15. Money of the Good Old Days 62 

16. Settling Their Difieerences 64 

17. A Trapper's Predicament 66 

18. Pioneer Hash 67 

19. Song of the Pioneers 70 

20. A Pioneer Vocabulary 72 



INTRODUCTION. 

This is Illinois' Centennial Year, a time most 
fitting to look back down the years and think of 
the labors and sacrifices of those who came into a 
land of savages and transformed it into a land of 
the highest type of civilization. Much of the won- 
derful history of the brave pioneers of these mighty 
days is forever lost. With the idea of helping to 
preserve that yet known and transmit it to the 
rising generation, we are presenting this little 
volume. We offer no excuse and no other explana- 
tion for its publication. If those who read this 
book are led to a greater realization of the won- 
derful work of the pioneer men and women, it will 
have served its purpose. 

Respectfully submitted, 

THE AUTHOR. 




A PRAIRIE SCHOONER. 



WHERE THE WEST BEGINS. 

Out ivhere the hand clasps a little stronger, 
Out where the smile dioells a little longer, 

That's where the West begins. 
Out where the sun is a little brighter. 
Where the snows that fall are a trifle iDhiter, 
Where the bonds of home are a wee bit tighter, 

That's where the West begins. 

Out lohere the skies are a trifle bluer. 
Out where friendship's a little truer, 

That's where the West begins. 
Out where a fresher breeze is bloiving. 
Where there's laughter in every streamlet floxoing. 
Where there's more of reaping and less of sowing. 

That's where the West begins. 

Out where the icorld is in the making. 
Where fewer hearts in despair are aching. 

That's where the West begins. 
Where there's more of singing and less of sighing. 
Where there's more of giving and less of buying, 
And a man makes friends without half trying, 

That's where the West begiyis. 

(From "America," a pioneer pageant play.) 

By R. H. Ward. 



PIONEER DAYS 



PIONEER HOME LIFE. 

When the pioneers came in search of new homes 
several families traveled together and they usually 
selected some well-wooded spot near some stream. 
When they were once located, no time was lost but 
all hands got busy. Often, by the first night, they 
had an improvised building in which the women 
and children were sheltered and in a few days they 
had houses for all and a nice little clearing 
around each. 

The houses were usually about sixteen by twenty 
feet or hardly so large. The walls were of logs 
that ranged from eight to twelve inches in diam- 
eter. They were built in the form of a pen with 
notches in each log at the corners to make them 
lie solid and closer. Then pieces were sawed out of 
one side for the door. The frame of the roof was 
formed by shortening the logs at each end, thus 
necessitating bringing the logs of the sides closer 
together until the last one would form the comb of 
the roof. It was covered with clapboards, which 
were usually about four feet long, made from large 
trees and split with an instrument they call a frow 
(fro). The roof was sometimes nailed on, and at 
other times it was fastened on with poles laid 
crosswise of the boards. The tioor, if they had any, 
was made of puncheons, which were timbers a foot 



8 PIONEER DAYS 

or more in diameter, cut into lengths of eight or 
ten feet, split open, and the flat side smoothed. They 
were sometimes laid flat on the ground and at other 
times they were notched at the ends and laid on 
cross logs called sleepers. The door was quite gen- 
erally made of planks split out like the clapboards 
of the roof, which were then pegged to two cross- 
pieces, one end of each forming a hinge. The latch 
was on the inside and would drop into a notch in a 
peg and securely hold the door, but could be lifted 
from the outside by means of a string extending 
out thru a hole. If the "latch-string" was hang- 
ing out, people were welcome to lift the latch and 
come in. In one end there was a place about five 
feet square cut in the walls for a "fire-place," 
which consisted of three sides of a pen about three 
by five feet built in this opening to the top of it, 
attached to the sides by "notching in", then lined 
with stone and Avell plastered with mud. The fire- 
place terminated in a chimney which was built of 
sticks, then plastered with mud. This was the 
"stick-and-clay chimney." They had no glass for 
windows, so they just salved out a piece of log and 
put a piece of greased paper in the opening. 

The furniture was all home-made. The bed was 
formed as follows: They first took a pole long 
enough to extend from the floor to the roof, 
trimmed the limbs off, cutting each about six inches 
from the pole, so as to leave several hooks which 
might serve as a sort of clothes rack. This pole 



PIONEER DAYS 9 

was then set about four feet from one side at a 
back corner and six feet from the end. A pole was 
laid from a crack in the end to the first fork in this 
upright pole, about two feet high, and from that 
to the side wall, clapboards or something of the sort 
were laid across and the bedstead was made. On 
this they usually put a bed made of straw or corn 
husks, or even grass or leaves. In better days this 
was supplied with feathers. The table was a crude 
affair. They had no chairs but they made stools 
by boring three holes in a block of wood and. put- 
ting pegs in for the legs. Sometimes they fixed up 
something like a puncheon with four legs as a 
bench for the children. They had no cook stove, 
but usually a large skillet with an iron lid was a 
substantial part of their e(iuipment, tho they did 
not always have that. To do their baking, they 
made a heavy bed of coals on the hearth, set the 
skillet on them, put their food in, put the lid on, 
and then covered that with coals. Their light was 
usually a tallow candle, but sometimes they Avere 
not so fortunate as to have the tallow and they had 
to have a grease lamp. The dishes also were nearly 
always home-made wooden bowls and noggins. The 
more fortunate ones only had a few pewter dishes. 
Many had no knives or forks. If the former were 
lacking, the hunting knife was called into service, 
and if the latter a sharp stick answered the pur- 
pose. Clocks were very scarce. The old rooster 
would crow just as day began to dawn, so they 



10 PIONEER DAYS 

needed no alarm. They all learned to tell time 
pretty accurately by the sun, so what need had 
they for a clock? They had no matches. Some- 
times they would start fire by striking a flint so 
as to throw the sparks on a piece of toe, but some- 
times the toe was scarce and they would go a mile 
or more to a neighbor's to borrow fire. Many of 
them kept fire thru the winter and summer by 
keeping a log in the clearing burning. 

The food was plain but very wholesome. The 
corn-pone and the johnny-cake were served for 
dinner. As hard as they worked they needed meat 
and very rarely were they without it. Sometimes 
it was venison. At other times it was turkey (wild) 
squirrel, rabbit, "possum" or "pattridge" (par- 
tridge or quail). Those who had cows furnished 
good sweet milk and buttermilk to everybody in 
the neighborhood. Mush and milk was the com- 
mon supper dish, and if they got tired of that they 
could vary it with "hog and hominy". They drank 
much milk and during the spring months they 
drank sassafras tea. They raised beans and pump- 
kins in the corn. They made sugar and molasses 
from the sap of maple trees, and they often cut a 
bee-tree, getting sometimes several gallons of 
honey. 

The majority of the pioneers were poor, but hon- 
est and respectable, hence poverty carried with it 
no sense of degradation or humiliation like that 
felt by the poor of our age. They lived in just 



PIONEER DAYS 11 

humble cabins, but they were their own, built by 
their own hands. They had few of the conveniences 
of modern life and they were destitute of many of 
the things we now consider absolutely necessary, 
but they were industrious, patient and cheerful and 
hopefully looked forward to better days. As noted 
above, they had plenty of food and it was whole- 
some. They had a good appetite and a clear con- 
science, and as they sat down to the rude table to 
eat from wooden or pewter dishes, they enjoyed it. 
The bread they ate was from corn they had both 
grown and ground, or it was made of wheat they 
had grown and by a very laborious process flailed 
out and ground ready for bread. Some of them 
had graters on which they grated their corn and 
wheat, but others had various forms of hand-mills. 
They walked the green carpet of the forests and 
fields around them, not with the mien of a vagrant, 
but with the independent air and elastic step of a 
self-respecting freeman. 

In nothing have there been greater changes than 
in their dress. The women usually wore a home- 
made dress of what they called linsey-woolsey, but 
occasionally the more fortunate ones could get 
calico from ' ' back east ' ' and wear that on Sundays 
or on dress occasions. They wore hoops, which 
made the dress spread out at the bottom. Some- 
times they had sleeves made very large and stuffed 
with feathers so that if the arms were extended at 
right angles to the body, the sleeves were about as 



12 • PIONEER DAYS 

high as the head. When the boys used to hug the 
girls (and they say they did), they called it 
"squeezing the pillows." On their heads they 
wore sunbonnets in the summer and shawls in win- 
ter. If they didn't go barefooted they wore moc- 
casins, which were made of a piece of deer-skin, 
which were laced along the back of the heel and the 
"calf" of the leg and also over the toes and instep 
up along the shin. The more artistic ones ran about 
a foot high and the tops were cut into strings, 
which were painted in various colors and allowed 
to dangle about the ankles. The girls often car- 
ried their moccasins to church, putting them on at 
the door. The men wore hunting shirts, breeches, 
moccasins and a cap. The hunting shirt was a 
loose sort of a blouse. It opened in front and was 
large enough to serve as a sort of pouch in which 
to carry lunch and other things necessary for the 
trip. It was usually belted down and in this belt 
he always carried a hunting-knife and sometimes 
a tomahawk. On dress occasions he wore a short 
cape over this coat, which terminated about his 
shoulders in a fringe of bright colors. His cap was 
made of coon-skin made so that the tail served as an 
ornament dangling from the top or down behind. 
His "breeches" were of buck-skin. In winter he 
wore the hairy side in and in summer he reversed 
it. On at least one occasion the "buck-skin breech- 
es" served another purpose. Reverend James 
Lemen of Monroe County and his son were out 



PIONEER DAYS 13 

plowing and left their harness in the field at noon. 
The boy, hoping to get a vacation, hid one of the 
collars. The father was resourceful enough and at 
once took off his breeches, stuffed them with grass 
and this served as a collar for the afternoon. 

They had plenty of work to do and if they got 
tired they worked at something else until they 
rested. The women had work around the house 
daubing the building, getting wood, grinding corn, 
cultivating the truck-patch, dressing skins and 
making it into clothing, or carding, weaving, and 
spinning cotton or wool and making that into 
clothing, knitting socks and stockings, milking the 
cow and teaching the children to read. When she 
got this done she went and piled brush or some- 
thing of the kind until she rested, if she "was tired. 
The men cleared the ground ready for crops, some- 
times at the rate of ten or fifteen acres per year, 
by cutting down all the smaller trees and "dead- 
ening" the larger ones. They made rails and built 
a fence around the fields, then plowed the ground 
with a home-made plow and cultivated the crops. 
Besides all this, they must "all-hands" protect the 
chickens, geese, ducks, sheep and hogs against the 
opossums, raccoons, panthers, wild-cats, and 
wolves, and it often happened that they had to pro- 
tect themselves against the Indians. 

They were good at combining business with 
pleasure. In the spring they had log-rollings; 
which everybody — men, women and children — at- 



14 PIONEER DAYS 

tended. This was an occasion for everybody l* 
help and it was a source of great pride to a uvdn 
if he could pull all the others down at the end of .1 
"hand-spike". The women took their spinning' 
wheels along, and it was a great day for them as 
well. They had many amusements which were a.i 
essential part of their education. The boy soo'; 
passed the bow and arrow stage, and before ho 
reached his teens he could handle the rifle well. 
They often had "shooting-matches," and they de- 
veloped great skill in marksmanship. They learned 
the tricks of the animals and could imitate them 
all, from the "gobble" of a turkey to the howl of a 
wolf. They learned how to decoy the panther from 
his hiding place and how to call a deer by day or to 
'"shine" him by night. 

Boys went courting in those days. Among them 
there was no aristocracy, so there was but little 
looking for wealth or influence. They generally 
married young and started out in life for them- 
selves. In those days you could tell when youug 
people were going to get married by the way a 
young man tried to prepare a few home-made tools 
of his own and also by the fact that the girl was 
taking an additional interest in drying fruits, mak- 
ing quilts, etc. On the wedding day all the neigh- 
borhood was there. The ceremony was performed 
at noon and then came the big dinner. In some 
neighborhoods this was followed by dancing the 
"fox-trot" and the "country (contra) dance" un- 



PIONEER DAYS 15 

til daylight the next morning. The old fiddler was 
in the height of his glory. In other localities where 
they did not believe in dancing, they spent the 
afternoon in the various sports common to pioneer 
life, and departed to their homes before night only 
to assemble at the home of the father of the groom 
for an "infair" dinner the next day. Within the 
next week a place for the house was selected and 
the neighbors built a house for the new couple, and 
after a "house-warming'" which consisted of an 
all-night party or dance, the young couple moved 
in and were "at home." 

If any of them became sick, the good old mothers 
were the doctors. If they could not be cured, it 
was often ascribed to the ill-will of a witch. If 
they died, the preacher was there to say the last 
sad words at the grave. The neighbors were the 
undertakers. 

''Yet e'en these bones front insult to protect. 

Some frail memorial still erected nigh, 
With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked. 

Implores the passing tribute of a sigh. 

Their names, the years spelt by the unlettered muse. 

The place of fame and elegy supply. 
And many a holy text around she strews. 

That teach the rustic moralist to die." 

As the years rolled on, fields were cleared up, the 
whip-saw and the saw-mill were introduced, better 
homes were built, churches were organized and 
schools M'efe established. Various enterprises were 



16 PIONEER DAYS 

started up and people became specialists in differ- 
ent lines. The Indian and many of the wild ani- 
mals disappeared. The pioneer doctor succeeded 
the old "witch-master" and the people generally 
led an easier life. In our imagination we can look 
back over half a century and, on a winter evening, 
see the old pioneer grandmother sitting by the huge 
fire-place,' knitting away, while the children are 
gathered around a table and by the light of a tal- 
low candle are studying their lessons, and the pio- 
neer grandfather sits in meditative mood. Finally, 
when lessons are gotten the children call on Grand- 
father to tell them a story and out of the depth of 
his heart he tells them a story before they scamper 
off to bed to have a frightful dream about battles 
with the Indians or of the good times at some of 
their gatherings. 



PIONEER DAYS 17 



A PIONEER CHURCH. 

Among the first buildings to be erected in any 
frontier community was a "meeting house". It 
was often used as a home for women and children 
until the pioneer cabins could be built. It was then 
used for church, or as they generally called it, 
"meeting". In the same building they also had 
other community gathering, even using it as a 
school house sometimes. They were never expen- 
sive and the church \vas never pressed for "offer- 
ings" or should I say, "collections"? They cared 
not for finery and the church was never financially 
embarrassed. 

In the earlier days they were usually built of 
logs but sometimes of lumber sawed with a whip- 
saw or small saw-mill, operated by horse-power or 
a water wheel. All the labor was donated and they 
gladly gave it as a labor of love. Of course they 
gave the material also. 

They were given such names as Mount Olive, 
Mount Pleasant, Mount Pisgah, Mount Moriah, 
Mount Xebo, Pleasant Grove, Bethel, New Jerusa- 
lem, Sharon, etc. Sometimes they were nicknamed 
by the irreverent and given such appellations as 
"God's Barn," "Board Shanty," and "Hell's Half 
Acre," and these names became more common than 
the real ones. 



18 PIONEER DAYS 

Old Sharon was a rural church located in a splen- 
didly shaded grove. It was a fairly well construct- 
ed frame building about thirty by forty feet, and 
every piece was worked out b.y hand. Even the 
flooring, ceiling and weather-boarding were hand- 
dressed. The altar or pulpit, as it was called, was 
a good piece of architecture and was approached 
by "three upright regular steps". 

The seats were common benches. The corner to 
the right of the preacher was called the "Amen 
Corner," and was reserved for the old men. If the 
old church were still standing, I could go back and 
hang my hat on the very nail on which my father 
used to hang his. For lack of a better name the 
opposite corner was nicknamed the "A Woman 
Corner" by some wag. On one side they had seats 
for the boys and men, and on the other they had 
seats for the girls and women, and let us say that 
this rule was sacredly adhered to. In one case a 
young man went in and sat down with his best girl. 
The preacher politely told him to move to the other 
side. He was reluctant but obeyed. 

Let me digress here long enough to say that the 
boys seldom accompanied their girls to church, but 
often went home with them from the night service. 
Sometimes they had no previous arrangements and 
had some very ingenious ways of asking for the 
privilege of accompanying the girl home. A boy 
might say, "Do you love chicken?" and if she 
wished to give a favorable reply, she said, "Yes, 



PIONEER DAYS 19 

sir". He would then extend an arm and say, "Take 
a wing". Again he might say, "The moon shines 
bright. Can I go home with you tonight"? If fa- 
vorable, the answer was, "The stars do too. I 
don't care if you do." Not every fellow of the 
crowd that stood in waiting at the door like a gang 
of unweaned calves was favorably considered and 
a negative answer was called a "sack". Most of 
the boys accepted that without a word and, greatly 
embarrassed, got out of the crowd as soon as they 
could, but others were "game" and gave rejoind- 
ers. Once at least this dialog took place : 



Boy 
Girl 
Boy 
Girl 



"Can 1 see you home tonight?" 

"No, sir." 

"Give me a string." 

"Ain't got any." 

"Give me your garter, then. That will 



Boy 
do." 

I know the name of that youngster, but please 
ask me no questions, for I shall not tell. The law 
grants immunity from giving evidence against oni-- 
selves. Another boy wished to compromise the 
matter and said he Avanted to go only as far as 
Uncle Mack's. 

Of course, they had to be governed by the 
weather, but in the summer, in particular, the 
young men gathered in the grove and "swapped 
yarns" until some one in the house began a song 
which was the signal to come in for the services 



20 PIONEER DAYS 

to begin. Some of the young men would come in, 
but the rowdies stayed outside. The sermon was 
usually very long, the services often lasting from 
11:00 o'clock until after 1:00 o'clock. Once a 
3^oung fellow came out from town hoping to go 
home with one of the girls, and he tarried with the 
gang outside. If nothing else made him unpopular, 
the simple fact that he was wanting to pay his re- 
spects to one of the "country girls" Avould make 
him so, and he had to be the victim of all their 
jokes. He expressed a wonder at the length of the 
sermon and asked how long it lasted. They told 
him that it would last until time to go home and do 
up the chores late in the evening. He believed it 
and left just in time for some other fellow to get 
to go home with the girl. 

They had no organ and no choir (war depart- 
ment of the church), but usually some old man with 
his coarse gutteral voice, or a woman with her high- 
pitched nasal voice led the singing. There were 
few song books and the preacher would "line the 
hymns", that is, he would read a line or a stanza 
and then they would sing it, and thus on thru the 
song. In many churches there was, and in a few 
there is yet, a prejudice against any kind of musi- 
cal instrument in the church, and it was so strong 
that some times it was a rock upon which the 
church was wrecked. 

Sometimes they had revivals and while 'Some 
preacher or layman would be praying, others would 



PIONEER DAYS 21 

be saying such things as "Lord grant it," "Yes, 
Lord," and "Amen," all in a groaning tone that 
people could hardly understand. I presume the 
Lord did. Once, while such a performance Avas 
going on a venerable, gray-haired brother was pick- 
ing his nose and saying some of these things. It 
looked like he was taking on about his nose. Some 
boys saw it and laughed. One of the deacons rep- 
rimanded them. His attention was called to it and 
even he had to laugh. 

The preacher was sometimes one of their number 
but usually he was some man with a great big heart 
and little ambition to accumulate money, and 
whose reputation as a preacher extended far be- 
yond the confines of his own community. He was 
always reverent and sincere and his every word 
and act proved it. The best people of the com- 
munity loved him and the others respected him. 
He always had the power to drive his message di- 
rect to his hearers. "A man he was to all the 
country dear," but he was not getting rich at forty 
pounds a year, for the collections were usually 
small. 

"But in his duty prompt at every call. 

He watched and wept, he prayed and felt for all; 

And as a bird each fond endearment tries, 

To tempt its new-fledged off-spring to the skies. 

He tried each art, reproved each dull delay, 

Allured to brighter ivorlds and led the way. 

"Beside the bed where parting life was laid. 
And sorrow, guilt and pain by turns dismayed. 
The reverend champion stood. At his control. 



22 PIONEER DAYS 

Despair and anguish fled the struggling soul; 
Comfort came down the trembling wretch to raise. 
And his last falVring accents whispered praise, 

"At church with meek and unaffected grace. 
His looks adorned the venerable place; 
Truth from his lips prevailed with double sioay. 
And fools who came to scoff remained to pray. 
The service past, around the pious man. 
With steady zeal each honest rustic ran. 

His ready smile, a parent's toarmth expressed ; 
Their welfare pleased him and their cares distressed; 
To them, his heart, his love, his grief were given. 
But all his serious thoughts had rest in Heaven. 

As some tall cliff that lifts its aivful form. 
Swells from the vale and midivay leaves the storm, 
Tho round its breast the rolling clouds are spread. 
Eternal sunshine settles on its head." 

T have described here my old home church. Of 
course, my experience does not date back to pio- 
neer days, but many of the old customs still pre- 
vailed and I recall that my father and other old 
settlers told me many of the things that made the 
memory of the old church a sacred memory to them. 
This church was built about 1840, and destroyed 
by a cyclone in 1889. A new one was erected on 
the spot, but is now unused. I believe the rural 
church entered more into the social and religious 
life of the communities than did others. They 
have served their purpose and, having done so, are 
passing swiftly away. 



PIONEER DAYS 23 



A PIONEER SCHOOL. 

In pioneer days, as now, four things were essen- 
tial to a good school. They were the material 
equipment, the parents, the children and the 
teacher. 

The idea was not by any means general that the 
girls needed an education and, rough and rugged 
as the people were, they thought that any place was 
good enough for a school house. Sometimes it was 
an abandoned building. It may have been an old 
corn crib. In one instance, at least, it was an old 
stable. Little attention was paid to heat, light or 
ventilation. If they did not burn or freeze that 
was sufficient. They were not comfortably seated 
and no attention was paid to beautifying the school 
room or surroundings. Even a heating stove was a 
rare thing. Usually it was a fire-place where a 
pupil would roast one side, while the other was 
freezing. An opening made by cutting a log out 
of one side served as a window and when it was 
too cold, the window was either closed up entirely 
or at best it was covered with greased paper. Glass 
for windows was so rare that mention was made of 
one as the first and only one in the State having 
"real glass windows," 

One of these schools which I think is a typical 
one, was held for many years in an old church 



24 PIONEER DAYS 

house. It was a frame building much larger than 
the average, possibly about thirty by forty feet. It 
stood on pillars. There was no underpinning and 
the hogs which were allowed to run at large often 
bedded under it. The noise they made furnished 
great amusement to the boys and girls. The floor 
was so open that the wind could whistle thru it. If 
a pencil were dropped it was sure to roll thru a 
crack and if a finger of boy or girl went up, it 
meant that the individual wanted to go out, crawl 
under the floor and get the lost pencil. 

The seats were just long benches, sometimes ar- 
ranged to face the fire-place or sometimes arranped 
in a square around the stove. The benches wt.re 
often merely logs split open and pegs driven in the 
round side for legs. Four was the maximum aum- 
ber of desks they had, one for the large boys. Die 
for the small boys and the same for the girls. Tlicy 
were, of course, home made. A blackboard possi- 
bly a yard square, made of plank was all they had 
and, as they thought, all they needed. One box of 
crayon would last several years. Instead of crayon 
they sometimes used a kind of clay they called kale. 
If they had a map of the United States and another 
of the hemispheres they thought themselves well 
supplied along that line. 

Often the Bible was the only reader in school. 
They used the "Old Blue-backed Speller," written 
by Noah (Noah Webster). An advanced arith- 
metic was considered the most important of all. 



PIONEER DAYS 25 

It was a source of great pride to a boy to go thru 
the arithmetic, for his education was then com- 
pleted. The teacher could not "learn" him any- 
thing more and he could quit school. As we say 
now, he graduated. There was no library in school 
and there were but few books in the community. 
In fact well-graded text-books did not exist. 

The teacher taught them how to make pens of 
quills and ink of balls they got from small oak 
trees in the woods. He set the copy for them to 
write. Here is one of them, "Luck at the coppy 
careful." You see, he had not mastered the spell- 
ing book and that he did not know by any means 
all about grammar. Tho "all declared how much 
he knew," it is evident that his scholarship would 
not pass muster now. They used slates and home- 
made soapstone (talc) pencils. The teacher "board- 
ed round," i.e., the people took it turn about in 
boarding him. They paid so much per pupil or 
"scholar" as they called it. A little later, the 
"deestrict" (district) school was organized by law 
and the teacher was paid partly out of public funds 
and finally all was paid that way. 

The children liked to chew the corners of their 
books and to throw spit balls. Occasionally they 
became unruly and it resulted in a "free-for-all" 
bout, or sometimes it was "a fair field and no fav- 
ors" between the teacher and the bully of the 
school. If the teacher whipped all was well and 
he was respected from then on, but if the boy came 



26 PIONEER DAYS 

out victorious he was a hero and the teacher left in 
disgrace. The boys often prided themselves on 
being able to take lots of punishment and saying 
that it never hurt. One of their favorite sports 
was "lap-jacket." In this the boys would get the 
best switches they could, two would join left hands 
and whip each other with these switches. The one 
who flinched first was, of course, the loser and was 
laughed at by all the crowd. The victor must then 
go thru the same ordeal with some one else who 
was sure to challenge his championship. 

In one instance a "gum-wax" (sweet gum) tree 
stood about a quarter of a mile from the building 
and at noon many of the boys and girls, all of whom 
took their dinners, would rush to their baskets, 
grab their hands full of food and make a "bee 
line" for this tree, and they stood around it like 
"coon dogs" around a "coon tree". Each would 
pick away at the wax, putting each little particle 
into his mouth until he had a good "chaw" (chew). 
Then he would give up his place and go away to 
trade his wax out of his mouth to some one who 
was not fortunate enough to get to the tree. They 
were not altogether selfish. SoTuetimes the big boys 
would gather a good "chaw" and give it to the 
big girls, receiving in return a pleasant smile. At 
other times they would lend their wax. It was 
common to hear some little one begging: 

"Let me chaw yer wax till recess." 

"Boo! boo!" said a little fellow. 



PIONEER DAYS 27 

"What is the matter now?" said the teacher. 
"I swallered my wax," said the little fellow. 
"It won't hurt you," said the teacher. 
"But I borrowed it from Bill and he'll lick me 
at recess," said the little fellow. 

In the school room, then, good discipline did not 
always consist in keeping quiet, but sometimes it 
was in keeping noisy. To be sure they studied, the 
teacher required them to study aloud and if it be- 
came too quiet the teacher M^ould say, "Spell out, 
spell out!" On Friday afternoons they often had 
spelling matches, where they chose sides and spelled 
down or it might be a "program," as they called 
it, which consisted of "saying pieces" gotten "by 
heart" from some old book. Sometimes on Friday 
nights they had a spelling match between differ- 
ent schools or possibly they had a debate in which 
the older people took great interest. All these 
things were important factors in the education of 
the people at that time. 

In the earlier days, the teacher was always a 
man and he had to be a man, physically, but condi- 
tions changed and many ladies were employed. 
Most of them had high ideals and their "boarding 
round" served a good purpose in educating the' 
parents also and in securing interest in the school 
and community interests in general. The memory 
of the pioneer teacher was a sacred memory to the 
children of the pioneers. They served well their 
generation and did their part of the work toward 
the evolution of man as man shall be when time 
shall be no more. 



28 PIONEER DAYS 

THE PIONEER MOTHER. 

To all those who have builded well, we give our 
meed of praise, but especially do we wish to honor 
the pioneer mother who left the comforts of the old 
home "back East" and took up the painful and 
dangerous journey to the woodlands and the prai- 
ries of the "Illinois Country," and made possible, 
this great commonwealth. 

' ' Westward the course of empire takes its way, ' " 
and with this westward trend of civilization, came 
the pioneer mother who turned her tear-dimmed 
eyes from all that civilization then afforded, from 
all that was dear to her — father, mother, sisters, 
playmates — and all the haunts of her early child- 
hood. All these she left, knowing the indomitable 
spirit of herself and her husband and, trusting in 
God, bidding farewell to all these things of sacred 
and hallowed memories, she looks hopefully to the 
West. 

They were the best of the best, many of them de- 
scendants of Puritan or Cavalier. They sought not 
freedom to worship God, for that their grandfath- 
ers and grandmothers had secured. They sought 
not political liberty, for that their mothers and 
fathers had secured. They sought not "Bright 
jewels of the mine," but they sought opportunities 
to build homes, where what they earned would be 
their own. 



PIONEER DAYS 29 

They came from all the conveniences of the age, 
not to fields waving with golden grain nor to cities 
of churches, schools and factories, but they came 
to a wilderness filled with wild animals and wilder 
men, "away out west," where every vision was 
new and where the heart ached for a familiar voice 
or a familiar scene. 

The pioneer mother has come and gone, but she 
did not live in vain. She did her part of the work 
toward the evolution of man as man shall be when 
time shall be no more. Verily, "Their works do 
live after them". Because the pioneers did their 
duty in the days that were dark and terrible and 
splendid, there has been a great transformation. 
Forests have been cleared away, the sod of the 
prairies has been broken up. The wild animals 
have disappeared. The Indian is no longer here to 
use his tomahawk and scalping knife, but he too, 
has taken up his slow and painful journey toward 
the setting sun. In the place of all these are pleas- 
ant farm homes where in season can be seen the 
broad expanse of fields Avaving with golden grain. 
Churches dot the land, lifting their spires toward 
Heaven, showing that the people have faith in the 
God their fathers and mothers so nobly served. No 
less conspicuous are the common schools dedicated 
to the education of the masses. Great cities have 
been built, connected with each other by roads of 
steel, over which travel mighty engines of com- 
merce. 



30 PIONEER DAYS 

'"The viothers of our Forest Land! 
Stout-hearted dames were they; 

With nerves to wield the battle-brand. 
And join the border fray." 

Today we vie with each other in doing homage 
to the pioneer. While this is a general term, Ipt us 
not forget that to the pioneer mother is due a full 
share of the praise for giving us the blessings that 
we today enjoy. Prom earliest traditions we have 
honored the hero, but seldom has the heroine been 
mentioned. Let her be immortalized in bronze and 
marble, in song and story, and in all that is endur- 
ing. 

blessed Soul of the Wilderness ! To thee we 
bring our tribute of praise — yes, to thee, we, thy 
descendants, grateful for all that thou hast said 
and done, grateful for all thy sufferings and sac- 
rifices, we say with a heart full of reverence, "Bless 
thee, my soul!" 



PIONEER DAYS 31 

"GOING TO MILL." 

In the "good old days" they had to resort to 
various expedients in preparing the food for the 
table. Perhaps no phase of it is more interesting 
than the story of how they ground their corn and 
wheat. 

In many families they had a grater. They per- 
haps called it a "gritter. " It was made of a piece 
of tin, most any size, that it was possible to get. 
They punched it full of holes, bent it with the 
rough side convex and nailed it to a piece of board, 
thus forming a sort of semi-cylinder. The corn on 
the cob was rubbed on this, like rubbing clothes on 
a washboard, and it was ground into meal which 
fell on the board and ran down into a wooden 
trough made for the purpose. This was a laborious 
process, but it was the best that many of them had. 

The next step was what some have called the 
"hominy block." It was arranged on the top of 
a stump or a block cut from a tree and set on end 
and hewn out or burned out so as to make it some- 
thing like a large mortar. For a pestle they some- 
times used a large, smooth stone weighing some fif- 
teen or twenty pounds. This was very much like 
the plan the Indians had of putting the corn in a 
hole in a rock and rubbing it with another. They 
sometimes made a sort of maul, perhaps three feet 
long and weighing ten or fifteen pounds. They 



32 PIONEER DAYS 

even improved this and bent a sapling over, at- 
tached a piece of timber, six or more inches in 
diameter and six or eight feet long, in such a man- 
ner as to allow the timber to be brought down by 
pulling it. By this pr'ocess, the labor was lessened. 
The inventive mind, prodded on by necessity, de- 
vised another plan. If a sapling were not handy, 
they sometimes laid a pole twenty-five or thirty 
feet long across a fork and with the heavy end 
under the corner of the house in such a manner as 
to allow the spring of the pole to lift the weight. 

Next comes the hand-mill, very much like those 
used in the Holy Land today, and to which the 
Savior referred when he said, "Two women shall 
be grinding at a mill, the one shall be taken 
and the other left. " It was made of two stones, one 
of which was stationary and called the bed stone. 
A movable one above it was called the runner. A 
shaft was put thru the runner, one end terminating 
in the bed stone and the other in a hole in a piece 
of timber above. Thru this shaft, a pole perhaps 
ten feet long was put in such a manner as to make 
two handles against which two people could push. , 
The corn was fed thru a hole in the runner and 
the meal fell out from under it at the edges. This 
was free for the neighborhood and every family 
did their own grinding. 

Perhaps the next step was the horse mill, made 
very much the same way only larger, allowing the 
horse or oxen to go in a circle twenty feet or more 



PIONEER DAYS 33 

in diameter. This was still improved by putting 
the horse, or team of horses, or yoke of oxen, to a 
separate "sweep" fastened to an upright beam 
which was the axle of a wheel fifteen or twenty 
feet in diameter. This large wheel carried a deer- 
skin or cow-hide belt working on a much smaller 
wheel on the axle of the runner. About that time 
they began to charge toll and the law said it should 
be one-tenth. They had not then worked out a 
system of weighing the grain and giving them 
their milling, but each had to wait until his own 
was ground. People went long distances and often 
had to wait a long time. This gave rise to the ex- 
pression, "like going to mill," when you are ex- 
I)ected to await your turn. It is said that when 
General Logan was a boy, he drove thirty miles to 
mill. He, of course, had to stay all night, but that 
night it rained. The belt got wet and stretched so 
that it fell. Some hungry dogs chewed part of it 
up so badly that they had to kill an ox, tan the hide 
and make part of a new belt. In this way, he was 
detained several days. My father, when just a lad, 
drove a yoke of oxen fully that far with a load of 
corn and wheat. Part of the wheat he sold at fifty 
cents a bushel. 

The next step in this evolution was the water- 
mill, which was very much the same, but was run 
by water-power. If for no other reason, this kind 
of mill will be remembered thruout the ages on ac- 
count of the popular poem, "Little Jerry, the 
Miller". 



34 PIONEER DAYS 

Near the close of pioneer days, the steam mill 
came into existence. Not until then was there a 
definite system worked out whereby people could 
exchange corn or wheat for meal or flour and get 
away without waiting for their own to be ground. 
Mills became more plentiful and people took small- 
er amounts to mill, often not more than three bush- 
els of corn and three of wheat, and sometimes less 
than that. They spoke of this as a "turn of mill- 
ing". Very little wheat was used for it was so 
hard to harvest and to thresh. Fifty bushels was 
considered a large crop of wheat. If it was bolted 
at all, it was thru a deer-skin full of small holes, 
punched Avith a red-hot wire. In few things have 
people changed more than in preparing " bread- 
stuff ". 



PIONEER DAYS 35 



"A RANGER'S ADVENTURE." 

(From Historical Collections of the Great West, 
Published 1853.) 

Thomas Higgiiis was enlisted in a company of 
rangers and was stationed, in the summer of 1814, 
in a block-house eight miles south of Greenville, in 
what is now Bond County, Illinois. On the evening 
of the 30th of August, a small party of Indians 
having been seen prowling about the station. Lieu- 
tenant Journay with all his men, twelve only in 
number, sallied forth the next morning just before 
daylight in pursuit of them. They had not pro- 
ceeded far on the border of the prairie before they 
were in an ambuscade of seventy or eighty sav- 
ages. At the first fire the lieutenant and three of his 
men were killed. Six fled to the fort under covei 
of the smoke, for the morning was sultry and the 
air being damp, the smoke from the guns hung like 
a cloud over the scene, but Higgins remained be- 
hind to have "one more pull at the enemy," and 
avenge the death of his companions. 

He sprang behind a small elm, scarcely sufficient 
to protect his body, when, the smoke partly rising, 
he discovered a number of Indians. He fired and 
shot down the foremost one. 

Still concealed by the smoke, Higgins reloaded, 
mounted his horse and turned to flee when a voice 



36 PIONEER DAYS 

hailed him, "Tom, you won't leave me, will you?" 
He turned around and seeing a fellow soldier by the 
name of Burgess, lying on the ground and gasping 
for breath, replied, "No, I'll not leave you, come 
along." "I can't," said Burgess, "my leg is all 
smashed to pieces."" Higgins dismounted, and tak- 
ing up his friend, was about to lift him onto his 
horse, when the animal, taking fright, darted off 
in an instant and left them both behind. "This is 
too bad," said Higgins, "but don't fear; hop off 
on your three legs and I'll stay between you and 
the Indians and keep them oft'. Get into the tallest 
grass and crawl as near the ground as possible." 
Burgess did so and escaped. 

The smoke which had concealed Higgins now 
cleared away and he resolved if possible to retreat. 
To follow the track of Burgess was most expedient. 
It would, however, endanger his friend. He de- 
termined, therefore, to ventvire boldly forward and 
if discovered, to secure his own safety by the rap- 
idity of his flight. On leaving a small thicket in 
wdiich he had sought refuge, he discovered a tall, 
portly savage near by and two others between him 
and the fort. He paused for a moment and thought 
if he could separate them and fight them singly his 
case would not be so desperate. He started for a 
little rivulet near, but found one of his limbs fail- 
ing him, it having been struck by a ball in the first 
encounter, of which till now he was scarcely con- 
scious. The largest Indian pressed close upon hiiu 



PIONEER DAYS 37 

and Iliggins turned round two or three times to 
fire. The Indian halted and danced about to pre- 
vent his taking aim. He saw it was unsafe to fire 
at random and, perceiving two others approaching, 
knew he must be overpowered in a moment unless 
he could dispose of the forward Indian first. He 
resolved to halt and receive his fire. The Indian 
raised his rifle and Higgins, watching his eye, 
turned suddenly and received the ball in his thigh. 
He fell but rose immediately and ran. The fore- 
most Indian, now certain of his prey, loaded again 
and with the other two pressed on. The whole 
three fired. He now fell and rose a third time and 
the Indians, throwing away their guns, advanced 
upon him with spears and knives. As he presented 
his gun at one or the other, each fell back. At 
last the largest Indian, supposing his gun to be 
empty, from his fire having been thus reserved, ad- 
vanced boldly to the charge. Iliggins fii-ed and 
the savage fell. 

He now had four bullets in his body, an empty 
gun in his hands, two Indians unharmed before 
him and a whole tribe but a few yards distant. 
Any other man would have despaired. Not so with 
him. He had slain the most dangerous of the three 
and, having little fear of tbe others, he began to 
load his rifle. They raised a savage whoop and 
rushed to the encounter. A bloody conflict en- 
siled. The Indians stabbed him in several places. 
At last one of them threw a tomahawk, laid bare 



38 PIONEER DAYS 

his skull and stretched him upon the prairie. The 
Indians again rushed on, but Higgins, recovering 
his self-possession, kept them off Avith his feet and 
hands. Higgins grasped one of their spears and 
the Indian in attempting to pull it from him, raised 
him up. With his rifle he dashed out the brains of 
the nearest savage. In doing so he broke it, the 
barrel only remaining in his hands. The other In- 
dian who had fouglit with caution came now man- 
fully into the battle. To have fled from a man thus 
wounded and disarmed or to have suffered his vic- 
tim to escape would have tarnished his name for- 
ever. Uttering, therefore, a terrific yell, he rushed 
on and attempted to stab the exhausted ranger, but 
the latter warded off his blow with one hand and 
brandished his rifle-barrel Avitli the other. The In- 
dian was yet unharmed and under existing circum- 
stances the most powerful man. Higgins' courage, 
however, was unexhausted and inexhaustible. The 
savage at last began to retreat from the glare of 
his untamed eye to the spot where he dropped his 
rifle. Higgins knew that if he recovered that, his 
own case was desperate. Throwing his rifle barrel 
aside and drawing his hunting knife, he rushed 
upon his foe. A desperate strife ensued. Higgins, 
fatigued and exhausted by the loss of blood, was 
no longer a match for the savage. The latter suc- 
ceeded in throwing his adversary from him and 
went immediately in quest of his rifle. Higgins at 
the same time sought for the gun of the other In- 



PIONEER DAYS 39 

(lian. Both, bleeding and out of breath, were in 
seareli oi' arms to renew the combat. 

The smoke had now cleared away and a large 
number of Indians Avere in view. It would seem 
that nothing could save the gallant ranger. There 
Avas, hoAvever, an eye to pity and an arm to save, 
and that arm Avas a Avoman's. The little garrison 
had AA'itnessed the AA'hole combat. It consisted of 
six men and one woman, but that Avoman, a Mrs. 
Pursley, Avas a host. When she saAV Higgins con- 
tending single-handed Avith a Avhole tribe of saA^- 
ages, she urged the rangers to attempt the rescue. 
The rangers objected as the Indians were ten to 
one. Mrs. Pursley snatched a rifle from her hus- 
band's hands and declaring, "So tine a felloAv as 
Tom Higgins should not be lost for want of help," 
mounted a horse and sallied forth to his rescue. 
The men, unAvilling to be outdone by a woman, 
folloAA'ed at full galloj), reached the spot Avhere Hig- 
gins fell before the Indians came up, and while 
the savage AA-ith Avhom he had been engaged Avas 
looking for his rifle, they thrcAv the Avounded ran- 
ger aci'oss a horse before one of the })arty and 
reached the fort in safety. 

Higgins AA'as insensible for several days and his 
life Avas preserved only by continual care. His 
friends exti'acted Iavo balls from his thigh but tAVO 
remained and one of thein gave him a great deal 
of pain. Ileai'ing that a physician had settled Avithin 
a day's ride of him, he went to see him, but the 



40 PIONEER DAYS 

physician asked him fifty dollars and this Higgins 
flatly refused to pay. On reaching him he re- 
quested his wife to hand him his razor. With her 
assistance he laid open his thigh until the razor 
touched the bullet, then inserting his two thumbs 
into the gush he "flirted it out," as he used to say, 
"without costing him a cent." The other ball yet 
remained, llio it gave him but little pain and h(; 
eanied it with him to his grave. Higgins died iji 
L'ayette Coiuity a few years since. He was the 
most perfect specimen of a frontier man in his day 
and was once assistant door-keeper in the House 
of Representatives in Illinois. The facts above 
stated are familiar to many to whom Higgins was 
personally known and there is no doubt of their 
correctness. 

To the foi-egoing I might add that Higgins was 
once engaged to fight a duel. It was to be fought 
with rocks. A pile of rocks of convenient size to 
be thrown was arranged for each one of them at a 
distajice of ten steps from each other. Each had 
his seconds and when the vrord was given, the 
rocks went from Higgins so much like the shot 
from a rapid-flre gun that the other fellow fled. 
Thus ended the duel in favor of Higgins. 



PIONEER DAYS 41 



^'LASSES." 

]\Iy clear reader, I ain not giddy. I am not talk- 
ing about girls but I am talking about something 
sweeter. Those who have never had the pleasure 
of playing around a sugar camp could never guess 
what it is, so I will tell. It is sugar molasses. They 
used to call it "lasses'". In pioneer days there 
were many sugar camps out in the woods, where 
there were lots of maples or, as they were called, 
''sugar trees". When the sap began to run, they 
took kettles, kegs, buckets, pans, gourds and other 
things too numerous to mention and Avent to the 
woods. 

The trees were tapped by boring holes into them 
and putting an "elder" (alder) stalk into the hole 
ill such a manner as to make a spout, which ran the 
s.ij) into a trough made by cutting a log two or 
tinee feet long, splitting i1 in halves and digging 
it out something like the Indians used to do foi- 
canoes. 

The "sap" or "drip" was hauled in every niorn- 
i;i!X on a small sled with a barrel on it, and it Avas 
put to boiling as soon as possible. Sometimes the 
"bailiwick" of one man overlapped another's, and 
it often caused trouble. Deer liked this sap also, 
and sometimes a man Avent to his trough and found 
it like Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard. That oc- 
casion.ally caused trouble, also, as competitors Averf 



42 PIONEER DAYS 

liable to accuse each other of taking their sap. In 
one instance, of which I recall hearing my father 
speak, two men had trouble at a sugar camp and 
one killed the other. The dying man requested 
that he be buried where he killed his last "buck". 
His re(iuest Avas granted and he was buried on the 
top of the hill where the w4nd, moaning in the 
trees, sang his requiem for fifty years. 

Some of them had to stay at camp at night and 
occasionally a deer or other animal would come up, 
attracted either by the light or the scent of the 
camp. Their eyes could be seen shining far back 
in the dark, in fact, so far back that the men could 
see only the eyes of the animals, but that was 
enough, for the pioneer was a good shot and he 
usually got them. This was called "shining a 
deer." 

Children were all aroiuid the camp and as happy 
as mortals could be. Smoke, ashes, dirt and "lass- 
es" so completely covered them that you could 
scarcely have told whether they were white or 
black. By means of shifting sap from one kettle 
to another, they had some cooked to sugar, some to 
"lasses" and some not ([uite so far along. It was 
good "fillin' " and the children couldn't keep out 
of it. If they had a stick or a paddle, they used it 
and if not, they dipped their fingers in and then 
licked them off. My experience goes back just far 
enough that I had a chance to see the last of the 
sugar camps in Illinois. Gee! The kiddies of the 
twentieth century do not know what they have 
missed ! 



PIONEER DAYS 43 



"BUCK=SKIN BREECHES." 

On the Big Muddy Rivei' in Jackson County, 
there lived in the "good old days" a well-to-do 
family who had a beautiful daughter, who was 
tlie admiration of the young men for miles arouiul. 
There came to court her one winter's evening one 
of the young men of the neighborhood, dressed in 
tlie best that pioneer life afforded. As is, of course, 
always the case when a young man goes to see his 
best girl, the hours passed swiftly by and it was 
time for him to go home, but it began to rain and 
he was persuaded to stay all night. When he was 
shown his apartment, he bade the lovely girl "good 
night," hastily undressed, carelessly dropped his 
buck-skin breeches on the floor and was soon in a 
snug, warm bed and since it was late, he soon fell 
asleep. 

It became a cold, blustery night. The rain and 
sleet blew into his I'oom and completely covered 
his breeches, much of it going inside. As it turned 
colder his breeches Avere frozen so stiff that he could 
make them stand alone. Imagine his consterna- 
tion, if you can, when he awoke the next morning 
and found his Sunday breeches in that condition. 
What was he to do? What would you do? He 
tried to put them on, but it was out of the question. 
Taking them in his hands, he went to the room 
of the mother and father of the girl, where there 



44 PIONEER DAYS 

was the only fire-place in the house. He sat theni 
against the jamb to thaw out and to dry while he 
scampered back to bed. Trouble enough it seemed 
to him, but it was only the beginning, for as they 
thawed out next the fire, they naturally fell that 
way and fell in. Finally, the father began to smell 
burning leather and jumped out of bed, but too 
late to save the young man's breeches. They Avere 
damaged beyond use. The young man was in- 
formed of the accident but what coidd he do ex- 
cept to stay in bed until another pair could be 
fixed up for him and that is just what he did. The 
father came to the rescue and lent him a pair, and 
without much ceremony the boy turned his steps 
homeward. Just what the girl thought of this un- 
usual performance, neither history nor tradition 
tells us, but we are told that it was a long time be- 
fore he had the courage to even look at the girl 
again and that he finallv married another girl. 



PIONEER DAYS 45 

PIONEER BOATMEN. 

Many and marvelous are the changes that have 
been made in all the walks of human endeavor in 
the last one hundred years, but I believe there are 
no changes that are more marked than have been 
made in transportation. This is particularly true 
as applied to rivers. 

Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet were 
content to ply the Father of Waters and the Illi- 
nois in company with the Indians in their little 
canoes, scarcely dreaming of the changes a few 
generations w^ere to bring forth. A few years later 
the French were going on exploring and trading 
voyages down the Ohio with boats large enough to 
carry considerable quantities of freight. This con- 
tinued until their plans were frustrated when the 
English drove them from their uncompleted fort 
where Pittsburgh now stands. 

A few years later Colonel George Rogers Clark 
and his intrepid band of soldiers floated down the 
Ohio in a boat still more pretentious. They were, 
in a sense, pathfinders and it was the beginning of 
a new day, for after the Revolutionary War was 
over, navigation of the Ohio and the Mississippi 
began in earnest. Many of the men who had been 
in Clark's expedition went back to settle on the 
rich farming land in what is now" known as th'i 
American Bottom above Kaskaskia. Others c-n'oe. 



46 PIONEER DAYS 

ill large parties from the old home "back East", 
pushed across the mountains to the Monongahela 
Valley or to Pittsburgh, or some other point on 
the Ohio, and built large flat boats on which they 
loaded all their belongings and finally landed some- 
where on the Illinois shore or possibly they labori- 
ously worked their way against the current up tlie 
Wabash or the Mississippi. These boats were from 
fifty to sixty feet long and from tw^elve to fifteen 
feet wide. One writer says, "They were loaded 
with a little of everything". The cargo included 
provisions for the trip, some tools — particularly 
axes, a good supply of ammunition and a trusty 
rifle for each man and boy, and possibly an extra 
supply of clothing. To all these were added dogs, 
chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, sheep and cattle. We 
must not forget that this was a passenger boat, too. 
It must have looked very much like Noah's Ark, 
for it is said that once a young fellow yelled at 
the captain of one of these crafts and said : 

"Hello, old Noah, have you any room for any- 
thing else in your ark?" 

The captain looked around for a moment and 
said: 

"Yes, I think we have room for a donkey yet; 
come, jump on." 

Following this, men made it a business to take 
the products of the new country down to New Or- 
leans. They made larger boats, called keel-boats. 



PIONEER DAYS 47 

They drank and gambled and had a glorious time 
generally as they went down, regardless of the 
fact that they were in constant danger of being 
attacked by Indians or pirates, but the return trip 
was one of toil and hardship. Often they could 
make no progress at all against the current, and 
they had to go ahead and tie a rope to a tree, then 
pull themselves up "hand over," or sometimes 
they wound the rope on a windlass. This took a 
long time and a trip often lasted a whole season. 
These boatmen were strong and courageous. They 
had grown up on the rivers and were used to hard- 
shii)S. They despised a life of ease and luxury. 
They knew what danger was and courted it in all 
its forms. They feared neither God nor Devil, 
and much further were they from fearing man. 
They often had to fight Indians and sometimes com- 
peting crews fought to the death. Occasionally 
they fell out among themselves and if things seemed 
too quiet, they would have a fight just to see who 
could whip. 

A fair specimen of these boatmen was Mike Fink. 
Immoral and unprincipled, but whatever his faults, 
he was not a coward. It is said that he was a great 
joker, but if any one failed to laugh at his jokes, 
he gave them a whipping. He used to say, "I'm a 
Salt River roarer ; I'm chuck full of fight and I love 
the women," The following incident, however, 
does not indicate that his last statement is true. 
Once while his boat was tied up, another boatman 



48 PIONEER DAYS 

made a landing near his. Mike was seen to be in a 
bad humor as he went into the edge of the woods 
and raked up a large pile of dry leaves. They 
asked him why he was doing it, but he went on sul- 
lenly without a word. Finally it was as high as 
his head and he went back to the boat and got his 
rifle, then called to Peggy, his wife, to follow. She 
knew something was wrong and said in alarm, 
"Mr. Fink, what have I done?" No reply came, 
but she followed as he led the way to the pile of 
leaves. He ordered her to lie down and she obeyed. 
Then he set fire to them and told her if she moved 
he would shoot her. She stood it as long as she 
could, but finally, with her hair and dress on fire, 
she ran and jumped into the river. Then Mike, 
with his usual profanity thrown in for emphasis, 
said : ' ' Now that '11 larn ye not to be winkin ' at 
them fellers on t'other boat." 

Most of them were good marksmen and he was 
particularly so. Once he shot a negro in the heel 
just to hear him yell. He had a friend who was an 
equally good marksman and they often used to 
shoot a cup of whiskey off of each other's heads 
at a distance of seventy steps. They had a quarrel, 
but made up, and to celebrate the treaty the.y 
agreed to try their old feat. They tossed up a 
coin to see who might shoot first. Mike won and 
when he fired his comrade fell dead. Mike at first 
claimed it was an accident, but later, as if to jus- 
tify his reputation as a marksman, he said he hit 



PIONEER DAYS 49 

where he aimed. The person to whom he spoke 
drew a pistol and put a bullet thru his heart. Thus 
died Mike Fink, the last of the keel boatmen. 

In 1811, the same year as the great earthquake 
at New Madrid, the first steamboat west of the 
Alleghenies was built at Pittsburgh. It was named 
the New Orleans. As it made its first trip down 
the Ohio and the Mississippi, many interesting 
things of note occurred. Many of the people had 
never heard of a steamboat, nor would they have 
believed the story within the realm of possibility. 
On a fine, still, moonlight night it rounded in at 
Louisville. The escaping steam and the noise in 
rounding to land produced a general alarm and the 
whole town was up in a little while and down at 
the river. A comet had recently been visible and 
the superstitious people thought it had fallen into 
the river. Greater consternation was added to the 
scene because they believed that a comet w^as a 
harbinger of war and many other dire punishments 
from the Almighty. It is said that many others, 
who either heard or saw the boat on the river for 
the first time, fled for the hills and would not re- 
turn for several days or until they w^ere persuaded 
to believe the true story of the new invention. It 
plied the Ohio and the Mississippi from that time 
until 1811, when it was sunk near Shreveport, Loui- 
siana, but others had been built. This boat sounded 
the death knell of the keel-boats. A new era in 
navigation had been ushered in and the steamboat 
had come to stay. 



50 PIONEER DAYS 



CAMP MEETINGS. 

t Contrary to the general belief, camp meetings 
were originated by the Presbyterians, and not by 
the Methodists, but the Methodists soon joined in 
and it became a kind of union meeting. They began 
in western Tennessee in the closing days of the 
eighteenth century, but were soon introduced into 
southern Illinois by the Methodists and were con- 
tinued for a good many years. 

A traveling preacher would go into a neighbor- 
hood and would have such power over his congre- 
gation that the people did not doubt that his power 
was supernatural. The effect on the audience has 
been variously described. It was somewhat anal- 
ogous to mesmerism of our own times. Under the 
peculiar eloquence of the preacher or the melody of 
the songs, some one would begin shouting. It was 
"catching", and in a few minutes the same thing 
was going on all over the house. Soon they would 
fall on the floor, sometimes rolling and jerking and 
sometimes lying perfectly motionless, apparently in 
a state midway between life and death for hours at 
a time. 

Of course, all those things brought great crowds, 
some came for fun, some out of idle curiosity, but 
no doubt a large percentage of them were prompted 
by motives of pure religious devotion. Regardless 
of their motives for gathering, they were "moved 



PIONEER DAYS 51 

by the Spirit", and many "who came to scoff re- 
mained to pray". It was soon found that no house 
would accommodate the crowds and they assem- 
bled in a grove near some spring. People came by 
the thousands and camped until the meetings closed 
and this was sometimes for several weeks. Between 
the sessions the people visited from camp to camp 
and read the Bible, and while the sessions w^ere on, 
the wildest enthusiasm reigned. There were min- 
gled voices of preaching, praying, crying and sing- 
ing. 

When the final session closed and the people de- 
parted for their homes, they could be heard singing 
and shouting praises to God, until their voices died 
away in the distance. 



52 PIONEER DAYS 



WITCHCRAFT. 

In 1799, two negroes, one at Kaskaskia and the 
other at Cahokia, were adjudged guilty of witch- 
craft and were bui"ned at the stake, according to 
law. This is but a clue to a belief that was quite 
prevalent during the early days in Illinois. 

The men were usually good marksmen but if, 
while on a hunt, they were "out of luck," as we 
would probably say, they said some one had be- 
witched their gun and about the only way the spell 
of the witch could be broken, was to take the gun 
to a stream running from a certain spring, unscrew 
the breech and allow the water to flow thru from 
muzzle to breech for a certain number of hours. 

If a cow became sick, it was generally thought 
that she had either lost her cud or that she was 
bewitched. If they diagnosed the ease as the for- 
mer malady, she was made to swallow a greasy 
dishrag. If that did not cure, she was bewitched. 
When her milk "fell off", that is, when she ceased 
to give her usual amount of milk, which is always 
the case when she is sick, the witches were milking 
her. They supposed that the witch did it by hang 
ing a towel over her own door and that by some 
mysterious power she was able to cause the milk to 
go from the cow to the towel and that the witch 
then got the milk by wringing the towel. 



PIONEER DAYS 53 

They had an idea that if people became sick and 
slippery elm or some other simple remedy would 
not cure them, they were under the spell of a witch 
and they had more faith in a "witch-master" than 
in a medical doctor. If the person got well, they 
thought the witch had lost her power and could 
regain it only by borrowing something from the 
family she wished to harm. It often happened that 
the very best women of the community, who had 
given the best of their lives to the community, 
were refused the simplest favors because the peo- 
ple Avere afraid they were giving new power to a 
witch. 



54 PIONEER DAYS 

KASKASKIA CURSED. 

That the following story is strictly historical, I 
can not assert. That there is much truth in it, can 
not be doubted. Many people, who are more or less 
superstitious, are inclined to believe it all. With 
the caution "not to take it too seriously" I am pub- 
lishing it just because it is a good story. 

Jean Benard was one of the first merchants in 
Old Kaskaskia. His business prospered and he 
soon became one of the most influential men in the 
community. His home became a social center. This 
was partly due to his geniality, but more to the 
fact that he had a daughter who gained the repu- 
tation of being the most beautiful girl in all the 
Mississippi Valley. She had many a gay young 
lover among the French from far and near, but it 
seems that Fate had decreed that she should reject 
all of them. 

Many of the Kaskaskia Indians became con- 
verted to Christianity. Among them was a young 
man who strove hard to get an education and such 
were his efforts that he soon gained the reputation 
of being the best educated among the young men 
of the community. He began trading and prospered 
from the beginning. It was not long until he was 
taken in as a partner in the largest trading estab- 
lishment in Kaskaskia, and soon was on a level 
socially with the young Frenchmen of the com- 
munity. 



PIONEER DAYS 55 

It is to be supposed that a man as popular as he 
and a girl as pretty as Marie would meet, and that 
is just what happened, or did it "just happen?" 
When they met, it was a case of love at first sight. 
He admired her sweet voice and her pretty face, 
and she in turn could not help but admire his tall, 
manly form and his plucky disposition. Benard 
believed in the superiority of French blood and 
could not bear the idea of his daughter's courting 
an Indian, no matter what his standing, so he did 
all he could against him, socially and financially, 
and finally succeeded in forcing him out of busi- 
ness and society, but love always finds a way and 
in spite of the vigilant eye of Benard, they man- 
aged to meet occasionally until they chose to 
change their plans. 

No one knew the Indian's plans but Marie, and 
she never told. He left Kaskaskia and for many 
months no one ever heard of him. Benard thought 
that his daughter had forgotten her lover, for she 
appeared gay and careless and accepted with ap- 
parent pleasure the attentions of young French- 
men. One day a strange Indian appeared. That 
night Marie and the strange Indian disappeared. 
He was her old lover. The conclusion was, of 
course, reached without much delay that the cou- 
ple had fled together and this was correct. A party 
was at once organized to follow, and as a new 
snow had fallen, they were easily trailed. They 
were overtaken near where the thriving city of Co- 



56 PIONEER DAYS 

himbia now stands. The facts developed that he 
had provided a home for her at the French settle- 
ment of Chouteau, now^ a part of St. Louis, Mis- 
souri. 

In order to protect Marie, the Indian surrendered 
without much resistance, and they were taken back 
to Kaskaskia. Some of the men in the pursuing 
party were rivals of the Indian for the hand oi 
Marie and they and others of the posse wanted t{> 
kill the Indian on the spot, but Benard claimed tli< 
right to name the punishment that should be meted 
out to the lover of his daughter. 

When the party reached Kaskaskia, the daugh- 
ter was placed in a convent. Then they took the 
Indian to the bank of the Mississippi, bound him 
with his back to a log and set him afloat. As this 
helpless Indian floated away he lifted his eyes to- 
ward Heaven and with a loud voice he called down 
the curse of God — on Benard and the city of Kas- 
kaskia. He asked God to give a violent death to 
Benard, to destroy Kaskaskia even to the graves 
of the dead, leaving only the name. Benard was 
killed in a duel, and how fully his curse on Kas- 
kaskia was fulfilled, history tells us only too well, 
for as he invoked God in his curse, the same mighty 
river that was drifting him down to his doom, later 
overflowed and swept away the entire town, leav- 
ing not even their graves. The Father of Waters 
now floats over the site of this one time proud me- 
tropolis of the west. On dark, stormy nights, the 



PIONEER DAYS 57 

ghost of the Indian is said to appear. The spectre 
with strong arms bound and with face upturned, 
floats placidly on the river where it sweeps over 
the vanished city in which Marie Benard lived and 
in which she died mourning the Red Man whom 
she loved. 



58 PIONEER DAYS 



FREAK LAWSUITS OF PIONEER DAYS. 

At Shawneetown, Illinois, there is an old jus- 
tice's docket that gives some interesting things 
relative to law suits in that locality. Part of it 
is scarcely legible and the language far from the 
rules of grammar, but part of it is well written 
and the language is a mark of scholarship in the 
one who wrote it. Here are some things docketed 
in 1822, just four yeai's after Illinois had been ad- 
mitted into the Union as a State. In one case the 
judgment M^as for five dollars and thirty-seven and 
a half cents, and it was the order of the court that 
the judgment be paid in salt at three bits a bushel. 
(A bit was a coin worth twelve and a half cents.) 
In another case, a man was sued for four bits and 
the verdict was, "We the jury find the defendant 
guilty." In regard to the same case the further 
notation was made, "The amount has been paid in 
Kentucky paper and the court is satisfied." Still 
another case gives judgment for one dollar and 
fifty cents and costs, itemizing the costs as follows : 
25 cents, STi/o cents, 25 cents, I21/2 cents, 371/2 
cents. 

There are other cases as interesting that are 
nearer to our own times. In 1833, some religious 
fanatics in Cass County attempted to burn an old 
woman as a burnt offering, were indicted for riot- 
ing and fined three dollars. In 1840, at old Browns- 



PIONEER DAYS 59 

ville, near where Murphysboro now stands, two 
men swore positively to a steer. One admitted 
that he had not seen it for a year, but asserted that 
he knew it because he was personally acquainted 
with it. The justice could not tell which to believe 
so he gave judgment that they kill the steer, di- 
vide it equally between them and give .the hide and 
tallow to the court for the costs. 

When the Illinois Central was being built, a large 
gang of Irishmen were pushing wheelbarrows near 
where Tamaroa now stands. They got on a drunk 
and a warrant was issued for one of them, A eon- 
stable went to make the arrest. He could not get 
him, but he fined him and took back with him both 
fine and costs. That constable was Henry Clay, a 
man who afterwards became a lawyer of consid- 
erable ability and was a member of the Illinois 
Legislature. 

With rare exceptions the people were honest and 
meant to be law-abiding. Their differences were as 
a general thing "settled out of court", either by 
mutual agreement, arbitration by a trusted neigh- 
bor, or by fighting it out. The records give com- 
paratively few cases of larceny and where steal- 
ing did occur it was pressing necessities that 
brought it about. In Jackson County a man by the 
name of Wolf was brought before a justice charged 
with stealing a hog. When the charges were read 
and he was asked to plead guilty or not guilty, he 
gave the following speech to the court. "If your 



60 PIONEER DAYS 

honor please, I believe I am, but if you have any 
doubts as to the facts, just call on Bill Page. He 
was with me and got half the shoat, but we needed 
it or we would not have taken it." After knitting 
his brow and scratching his head for a long time 
the court said, "It appears from the testimony that 
you. Wolf, the defendant in this suit, have violated 
the statutor.y law of the State and are guilty of a 
misdemeanor. Yoii are fined five gallons of whis- 
key and the costs, the court to be paid in deer 
skins killed in the short blue season." (Perhaps 
we should digress here long enough to explain that 
the deer sheds twice a year. The heavy hair of the 
winter is shed in the spring. It sheds again in the 
fall and is left with a covering of short hair that in 
color is between a blue and iron-gray.) 

The following case does not belong under an ar- 
ticle of this heading, but it is worthy of note, so 

we here include the incident. A man namecl 

was sentenced to be hanged at Albion. He had a 
rifle that was coveted by all the neighbors for miles 
around. One of them proposed that he would get 
him a pardon for the rifle. The condemned man 
accepted the proposition. The other man took a 
jug and a paper and went to work among his 
friends. In a short time he had enough signatures 
to a petition for pardon to feel justified in present- 
ing it to the Governor. The pardon was secured 
and offered to the condemned man. He refused to 
give up the rifle, saying the pardon was not worth 



PIONEER DAYS 61 

it. They were sitting before a big fire and the man 
who secured the petition threw the petition behind 
the back-log. This brought the criminal to time. 
The pardon was gotten out before it burned up, 
and the man was released. 



62 PIONEER DAYS 



MONEY OF THE GOOD OLD DAYS. 

To use , the language of one of the pioneers, 
"Money was purty scace (pretty scarce) in them 
days." And they had such a variety of standards 
that they seldom knew what their money was 
worth or how it would fluctuate in value. If a 
person proposed a trade the answer often came 
back in an inquiry, "What kind of money have 
you got?" The answer may have been, "Govern- 
ment money," but it was more likely to be "State 
money," or "Kentucky money," or some other 
kind of money, or still more likely it Avas a general 
statement of what he had to trade. Various hides 
and other things had a value placed on them and 
they passed as currency. Debts were made and 
they were paid with them. In some localities notes 
were given promising to pay so many saddles of 
venison at a certain time. In other localities cattle 
were made the standard of value. They were rated 
as "first-rate," "second-rate" and "third-rate". 
A first-rate cow and calf was worth ten dollars in 
State money. A second-rate one Avas worth eight 
dollars and a third-rate was worth six dollars. 

Thus all property was rated and if a man wil- 
fully rated his property wrongly he was considered 
what we would call a "crook" and it was hard to 
get people to trade with him. Neighbors were 
sometimes called in to rate their goods. The judg- 



PIONEER DAYS 63 

ment of these neighbors was law and from their de- 
cision there was no appeal. Milk, butter, eggs, 
beef, pork, venison, etc., were all given away among 
the neighbors for their own use, but for the mar- 
ket they had a value — pork, beef and venison at 
about half a cent per pound, eggs about three cents 
per dozen, and butter, if at all, three cents per 
pound. This is the kind of money they had to pay 
"the butcher, the baker and the candle-stick mak- 
er'', and the preacher, too, but they were their own 
butchers, their OAvn bakers and candle-stock-makers 
and some one of their own number was the 
preacher. 



64 PIONEER DAYS 

SETTLING THEIR DIFFERENCES. 

Illinois is a big State and people came from 
many sections in the "good old days," so we might 
expect that customs differed widely. In few local- 
ities was it ahvays possible to settle their differ- 
ences without resorting to personal encounters. Be 
it said, however, that they fought "fair", that is, 
each man depended absolutely on his skill or power 
of endurance without resorting to weapons. When 
they had a fight, that settled all, for no one was 
considered a man if he did not take the conse- 
quences without a complaint afterwards. It was 
a rule to fight in the open, a square stand-up fight 
and to fight hard and when one hollowed the other 
was to pour water for him to wash, then vice-versa. 

"On one occasion a couple of old 'cubs' got into 
a fight. They 'fibbed' away merrily on each oth- 
er's ribs, for a Avhile, stuck out viciously for the 
'bread baskets', handled their 'mauleys' dexter- 
ously, sent in 'stingers' on 'potato-traps', 'pasted' 
each other hotly in their respective 'smellers', after 
the most approved style of the fistic art, and in ac- 
cordance with the rule of the 'London prize ring'. 
At last one got the head of the other in 'chancery' 
and he was forced to cry 'enough'. As the winner 
of the first round was pouring w^ater on the hands 
of the loser, the latter said, 'Well, you have 
whipped me, but I'll bet you five venison hams 



PIONEER DAYS 65 

that my wife can whip your wife.' The bet was 
soon taken and the time appointed for the 'set-to' 
between the women." The incident ended here, for 
they found the women utterly unwilling to make 
themselves ridiculous and to degrade themselves 
in such a manner. 



66 PIONEER DAYS 

A TRAPPER'S PREDICAMENT. 

In those days wild turkeys were common and 
people often caught them in a trap called a turkey 
pen, constructed or rather built as follows : With 
poles they would build a pen about six feet square 
on the side of a hill, and would dig a ditch about 
a foot deep on the lower side running up into the 
pen. They would cover it with poles and to give 
it a forest-like appearance would throw brush 
around it. With corn scattered profusely in the 
ditch, the turkeys were lured up into the pen, but 
a turkey will not look down for a way out so they 
are caught. A man named Charles Davis built one 
of these pens and going to it one morning, found 
that he had several turkeys in it. He partly re- 
moved the cover and climbed in. The frightened 
turkeys made a lot of noise and attracted a hungry 
wolf. It did not see Davis and it came bounding 
down the hill and into the pen and upon him. Im- 
agine the scene if you can — man, wolf and turkeys 
all wanting out. It did not take Davis long to get 
busy. Without being told, he opened practically 
the whole top of the pen to make plenty of room 
and wolf, turkeys and man all escaped. In speak- 
ing of the incident afterwards, Davis said, "If I 
hadn't knocked the whole kiver off that ere pen I 
do believe that blamed wolf would have killed its 
fool self. ' ' We naturally wonder if the man would 
not have done so too. 



PIONEER DAYS 67 



PIONEER HASH. 

I do not know just what hash is made of and I 
am frank to say that I do not believe any one else 
does. I only know that it is made up of a little of 
everything. As you read on you shall see why this 
article is thus named. 

In pioneer days it was a common custom to play 
pranks on each other that would be taken pretty 
seriously now, but were accepted with good grace 
then. In what is now Monroe County a religious 
meeting was being held at one of the neighbor's 
homes, a small cabin with only one window. While 
they were all down on their knees devoutly in 
prayer, a boy named Lemen threw a calf in at the 
window. In doing this he managed to extinguish 
the only candle that was burning. The calf began 
to bawl and the people were seared almost out of 
their wits. The women were screaming and thru- 
out the whole situation pandemonium reigned. 
They thought the ''Evil Spirit" was in their midst. 
Finally the candle was lighted and there it was — 
only a calf. (It ought to be added here that Lemen 
was of a large and respected family in that county 
and in later years he became a power for good in 
the community.) 

In those days, it was great amusement to scare 
people and they resorted to many plans to do so. 
People were superstitious and mortally afraid of 



68 PIONEER DAYS 

ghosts. In one instance a man had a blaze-facet', 
horse named Baldy, but it died. Some boys got 
into his chicken-roost one night to decoy him from 
the house. He thought it was an owl and here he 
came in his night clothes ! One of the boys got be- 
tween him and the house and had on what was 
known as a horse-head, made of a sheet. The man 
thought it was Baldy 's spirit and began to beg, 
"Oh, Baldy, you know I was good to you. What 
do you want? Go away and leave me, Baldy," etc. 
The boy, seeing he took matters so seriously got to 
one side to allow him to run to the house, but the 
man thought no more of this earthly home and 
would not run. He finally fainted and the boys had 
to make themselves known. The boy wearing the 
horse-head was my father. 

Things that seem remarkable, w^e are often prone 
to doubt. It scarcely seems credible that far less 
than a hundred years ago, that the whole State 
was overrun with wild animals that preyed upon 
the crops, the poultry, the hogs, the sheep and the 
cattle of the pioneers. Even the people were not 
always safe. The wolves would sometimes attack 
a herd of sheep and kill several at a time. Deer 
would go in droves and jump into a field of corn 
at night and destroy a large part of it. Opossums, 
raccoons and owls were enemies of the chickens, as 
well as were also the hawk and the eagle. I wish 
I could tell you the story with the same flash of 
the eye that my mother used to tell how the panther 



PIONEER DAYS 69 

was decoyed from his den. Panthers are afraid of 
men and will run from their voices, but they are 
attracted by the voice of a girl or a woman. 
Whether it be true that "Music hath charms to 
soothe the savage breast," I do not know, but T do 
know that often my mother when a little girl, would 
ride thru the forests behind her father and slug 
in order that he might get a shot at the panther 
as it stealthily approached them. Such things as 
this were not considered unusual occurrences. 

I remember hearing my father tell that when he 
was a little boy down in Union County there were 
lots of Indians and that the two races got along well 
together. They loaned and gave to each other and 
were always ready to help. My grandmother gave 
milk to them, but one day an unusual thing hap- 
pened. The little Indian girl fell down and spilt 
the milk. She then returned for more milk, but be- 
cause it was all gone she had to return with her 
bucket empty. The Indian father Avas enraged at 
this apparent stinginess and demanded that they 
milk the cow. Finally, being convinced that the 
milk was not to be gotten, he wished to express his 
apology in a substantial way and brought over a 
fresh saddle of venison. The Indians were always 
ready to meet you more than half way either in 
peace or war. It has been said that they never for- 
got an enemy, but it might be said with equal pro- 
priety that they never forgot a friend. 



70 PIONEER DAYS 



SONG OF THE PIONEERS. 

A song for the early times out west. 

And our green old forest home, 
Whose pleasant memories freshly yet 

Across the bosom come. 
A song for the free and gladsome life. 

In those early days ive led. 
With a teeming soil beneath our fe^t, 

And a s<miling Heaven overhead! 
Oh, the waves of life danced merrily. 

And had a joyous flow, 
In the days when we were Pioneers. 

Some fifty years ago. 

The hunt, the shot, the glorious chase. 

The captured elk or deer; 
The camp, the big bright fire, and then 

The rich and wholesome cheer; 
The sweet sound sleep at dead of night, 

By our camp-fire blazing high — 
Unbroken by the wolf's long howl. 

And the panther springing by. 
Oh, merrily passed the time despite 

Our wily Indian foe. 
In the days when we were Pioneers, 

Some fifty years ago. 

We felt that ice were fellow-men; 

We felt we were a band. 
Sustained here in the wilderness 

By Heaven's upholding hand, 
And when the solemn Sabbath came. 

We gathered in the wood. 
And lifted up our hearts in prayer 



PIONEER DAYS 71 

To God the only good. 
Our temples then were earth and sky — 

None other did we know. 
In the days when ive were Pioneers 

Some fifty years ago. 

Our forest life was rough and rude, 

And dangers closed us round; 
But here amid the green old trees, 

Freedom was sought and found. 
Oft thru our dwellings wintry blasts 

Would rush with shriek and moan; 
We cared not, tho they were but frail. 

We felt they were our own. 
Oh, free and manly lives we led, 

'Mid verdure or 'mid snow. 
In the days when we were Pioneers, 

Some fifty years ago. 

But now our course of life is short, 

And as, fram day to day, 
We're walking on with halting step. 

And fainting by the way. 
Another land more bright than this. 

To our dim sight appears. 
And on our way to it we'll soon 

Again be Pioneers; 
Yet, while we linger, we may all 

A backward glance still throiv. 
To the days when we loere Pioneers, 

Some fifty years ago. 

By William D. Gallagher, 

Published in an Atlas of Jackson County, 111., in 1878. 



72 PIONEER DAYS 



A PIONEER VOCABULARY. 

Some of these words were introduced from the 
old home and were never in common use, but they 
were used by the pioneers in some localities. Others 
were improper forms or pronunciations of other 
words but were common enough to justify inserting 
them here. Still others were new words which 
originated out of the necessities of pioneer life and 
went out of use with the introduction of new sur- 
roundings. No attempt is made to make a complete 
list of words peculiar to pioneer life, but to give 
only a few words and phrases which they used and 
which have now practically gone out of use. 

Ash-hopper, a sort of hopper made by setting 
clap-boards about three feet long into a trough 
three or four feet long, leaving the upper end of 
the boards to extend about thirty degrees from a 
perpendicular so as to make the two sides meet in 
the trough, forming an angle of about sixty de- 
grees. The ends were built in with other boards. 
The hopper was then filled with wood ashes and 
kept dry until they wanted to use it. The pioneer 
woman poured water over it to make lye, which was 
used to make soap. 

Back-log", a cut of a log a foot or more in diam- 
eter to put in the back of a fire-place in making a 
fire. 



PIONEER DAYS 73 

Boot-jack, a piece of plank eighteen inches or 
two feet in length with an opening in one end 
which would just fit the boot heel. It was used to 
pull the boots off. 

Brace of ducks, two dead ducks tied together to 
make them more easily carried. 

Buck-skin Breeches, trousers made of the hide of 
a buck, worn with the hairy side in during cold 
weather and the other way during summer. 

Bullet-mould, a small iron instrument used by 
the pioneers to mould bullets for their rifles. 

Cabin, a small log-house made by building the 
logs together like a pen and covered with clap- 
boards. 

Candle-moulds, moulds made of tin into which 
tallow was poured to make candles. 

Candle-snips, an instrument something like scis- 
sors to trim the charred ends of the wick in a 
candle. 

Clap-board, broad, thin pieces of timber made by 
cutting a log into cuts from two to five feet long 
and then splitting them. The blocks were split into 
eighths and then the points were split off and dis- 
carded. This was called bolting and the parts were 
called bolts. The bolts were then rived or split 
into boards with a frow. It was (juite an art to 
make good boards. 

Cards, a pair of wire brushes about six by nine 
inches, used in working wool into strings. This 
was called carding. 



74 PIONEER DAYS 

Chinking, blocks or slivers of wood used to fill 
the cracks in the walls of a cabin. 

Civilized meat, an expression used to distinguish 
pork and beef from venison or the meat of other 
wild animals. 

Cradle, an instrument made for cutting wheat. 
It had a snead or handle about four feet long, prop- 
erly curved, a blade and four fingers, each about 
three feet long, set at right angles to the handle 
with the fingers in such a position as to catch the 
grain as it fell from the blade. A strong man could 
cut and swath about three acres in a day. 

Crane, a hook put in the fire-place to hang pots 
and kettles over the fire. They sometimes hung 
meat on it to roast it. 

Critter. Pioneers often referred to their horses 
as critters. The word is a corruption of the word, 
creatures. 

Dinner-horn, a horn used to call the farmers from 
the field. 

Dog-iron, another name for andiron or firedog. 
They were used to keep the wood from falling out 
of the fire-place. 

Drap, an incorrect pronunciation of drop, e.g., I 
just drapped in to see you a minute, or, The chil- 
dren drap the corn. 

Drinking-gourd, a gourd with a portion grown 
out like a dipper handle and with one side of it cut 
aAvay so as to make it like a dipper. One was usu- 



PIONEER DAYS 75 

ally kept at the well. They held from one to three 
pints and would last a long time. 

Fence-worm, the first rail of each panel of a rail 
fence. They were built zig-zag to enable them to 
cross the rails at the ends. It was not an easy job 
to lay a fence-worm. 

Fifth Quarter, the hide and tallow of a beef. It 
was sometimes given to an expert rifleman at a 
shooting match in order to appease him for being 
ruled out of the game. 

Fire-place, a large opening in a chimney where a 
fire may be built. 

Flint-lock, a gun arranged so that a piece of steel 
would strike fire from a piece of flint and thus ig- 
nite the powder. 

Frow (fro), an instrument with a blade about 
sixteen inches long and having a handle about the 
same length, set at right angles. It was used in 
riving clap-boards. 

Gee, a word to a horse telling him to turn to the 
right. The opposite is haw. 

Galluses, suspenders. 

Grease-lamp, in use more than two thousand 
years ago. It consisted of a dish of some kind con- 
taining grease and a cotton string for a wick. Fire 
was applied to the end of the wick hanging over 
the side of the vessel. By capillary attraction, the 
grease was drawn up and burned, making a fairly 
good light. 



76 PIONEER DAYS 

Gritter (g^rater), a common article made by 
punching holes in a piece of tin and attaching it to 
a board, making a segment of a cylinder with the 
rough side of the tin outside. It was used for 
grating corn. 

Hand-spike, a lever five or six feet long with 
both ends smooth, used to carry logs, a man lifting 
at each end of the hand-spike, with the log in the 
middle. At log-rollings, two or three were used 
under the same log. It was a great feat to pull 
everybody else down with a hand-spike. 

Horse-power, now a unit by which power is meas- 
ured. Then it meant a machine to which horses 
were hitched so as to go around in a circle and 
furnish power for grist mills, saw mills, etc. 

Indian-summer, a period of mild weather in the 
late autumn or the early winter, usually character- 
ized by a cloudless sky and a hazy, smoky-like 
horizon. It is of uncertain origin, but tradition 
says it is the time that Indians burned the leaves 
and gathered nuts. 

Johnny-board, a smooth board to put dough on 
before the fire to bake bread. It was probably a 
corruption of Journey-board, a name given to it 
because they used it when they were moving. 

Johnny-cake, a cake of bread made on the john- 
ny-board. 

Latch-string-, a string which extended from the 
door-latch upward and out thru a hole in such a 



PIONEER DAYS 77 

manner as to permit the latch to be lifted with it 
while it hung out. If the latch-string hung out, 
visitors were welcome to enter, hence the expres- 
sion, "the latch-string hangs out," when we mean 
to say you are welcome. 

Lead, the horse on the left in a two-horse team. 
It is sometimes called the "near" horse. The other 
is the "off" horse. 

Line a hymn. Song books were scarce, so the 
preacher would read a line of a song, then they 
would sing it, then he would read another and so 
on thru the song. This was called "lining a hymn." 

Loom, a large machine, usually home made, used 
for weaving cloth, carpets, etc. 

Linsey-woolsey, a kind of woolen dress, all home 
made. 

Lizard, a piece of timber cut out of the fork of a 
tree and made into a sort of a sled, used in drag- 
ging logs. 

Log-rolling". In the winter the farmers would 
clear the ground, i.e., they cut the timber off and in 
the spring the neighbors met and rolled and piled 
the logs to burn. This meeting was called a log- 
rolling. 

Mast, the crop of acorns, nuts, etc., that fell from 
the forest trees in the autumn. Hogs were allowed 
to run at large and were fattened on it. 



78 PIONEER DAYS 

Mourner 's-bench, the front seat of a church 
where those who were sorry for their sins were 
urged to come to be prayed for. 

Muster-day, a day set apart for all the men to 
gather together and practice military drill. (See 
Waller's History of Illinois.) 

Pillion, a sort of saddle or cushion for a lady, to 
be put on a horse behind a man's saddle. It was 
,the custom for a young man to take his best girl 
on the horse behind him. 

Plew, a whole hide of an animal. 

Plow-line, a rope used in directing the horse ir. 
ploM'ing. 

Pounder, a weight used in pounding grain. They 
varied in Aveight from one pound to several pounds. 
Sometimes it was a large round pebble but usually 
it was made of wood. 

Puncheon, a piece of log six or eight feet long, 
split open, the round side notched and the other 
smoothed, used in making floors, etc. 

Powder horn, a cow's horn in which powder was 
carried on a hunt. 

Quill-pen, a writing pen made of goose ciuills. It 
was a great point in favor of a teacher to be able 
to make a good pen. 

Reel, an instrument used in getting yarn ready 
to knit. 

Saddle of venison, two hams of venison not cut 
apart. 



PIONEER DAYS 79 

Salt gourd, a gourd in which salt was kept. It 
usually had an opening in the upper part of one 
side and was hung up by the stem. 

Shaving-horse, a bench with a vise arranged to 
operate by the feet. It was used to hold a piece of 
timber while it was being shaved or whittled down 
with a drawing-knife. 

Shine a coon. This meant to get into such a po- 
sition that a raccoon which the dogs had "treed" 
(found in a tree) would be exactly between the 
hunter and the moon. A good marksman could 
shoot toward the moon and get the raccoon. 

Shine a deer. This meant to build a fire in the 
woods at night and wait for a deer to come up so 
that the light shining in the eyes of a deer could 
be seen. The deer was shy and stayed a long dis- 
tance away, but a good marksman could get them. 

Sley, an instrument for the warp to go thru in a 
loom. 

Shot-pouch, a leather pouch swung around the 
shoulders, used in carrying shot while out hunting. 

Spinning wheel, a wheel driving a spindle which 
the women used in spinning yarn after it was 
"carded," i.e., made into loose strands with the 
cards. 

Trencher, a wooden dish, something very com- 
mon. 

Trundle-bed, a low bed on wheels. It was run 



80 PIONEER DAYS 

under another bed in the day time and brought 
out at night. It was for the children. 

Turn of milling. After mills were established, 
jDioneers took wheat and corn to the mill to be 
ground for "bread-stuff". It probably was three 
bushels of wheat and three bushels of corn, but no 
definite authority can be found as to that. Some 
say it meant just half that much. 

Venison, deer made into meat. 

Warping bars, a frame having a large number of 
spools, used to get the "warp" or threads of even 
length before they were woven into a carpet or 
piece of cloth. 

Well-sweep, a pole with a heavy end hung across 
the top of an upright fork in such a position that 
the weight of the heavy end would lift a bucket of 
water out of a well with the light end. 

Whip-saw, a saw used by the pioneers in sawing 
lumber. The log was placed on a frame so that 
one man could get under and pull the saw straight 
down. Another man would then pull it up. Thus 
the process was continued something after the man- 
ner of using a cross-cut saw. 



. TopoPY OF CONGRESS 
Q 014 75Z '^^^ 




